


Wayward Son

by HerOwlness



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe, F/M, post season one fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2005-05-25
Updated: 2005-05-25
Packaged: 2017-11-13 10:54:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/502754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerOwlness/pseuds/HerOwlness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after the "I was hoping it was you" line by Veronica.  Saying anything more about what's to come would give away certain plot bits.  Suffice it to say that this will be an angst-filled fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wayward Son

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: Not mine -- RT is smarter than me  
> SPOILERS: Set post-season 1. AU for canon beyond that.

**CHAPTER ONE**  
 _You're aching, you're breaking, and I can see the pain in your eyes._  
\--Keane, “Everybody’s Changing”

“I was hoping it would be you,” she says, a small smile on her lips. She knows she’s not being totally honest, but judging from how quickly the worry lines on his forehead fade with those simple words, it’s an innocent enough of a lie.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d still be up, and I didn’t want to wake you,” he shares hesitantly, as he leans against the railing outside her apartment. “This probably isn’t a good time, but I couldn’t sleep.”

He pauses, and looks down at his clasped hands. His nervousness is apparent, but she’s content to wait until he’s ready to share.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

His words come as a shock. True enough, he’d confessed the week before that he still had feelings for her, but she never expected that he would be at the point where he couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Her surprise is clear, causing him to rush to clarify his meaning. “When I saw you earlier, I was worried about you. I saw what Aaron had done to you and heard about what happened with your dad … ” He trails off at that point, likely thinking about how close Aaron had been to adding a second seventeen year old blonde to his list of victims.

“I’m fine. Just a few cuts and bruises – nothing too serious to worry about,” she replies easily, wanting to reassure him.

After Lilly’s death, she’d been surprised at how fragile Duncan really was. Throughout their relationship, she’d always thought of him as the stronger half. After all, he’s tall and muscular – the manly man, or so she believed at the time.

Now, however, she knows that he isn’t able to handle adversity very well. Perhaps it was due to the fact that he’d been coddled and pampered his entire life and was simply unused to the idea that there were problems that he couldn’t solve with a wave of his hand.

Really, the reasons don’t matter. She knows that unlike Duncan, her backbone of steel was forged during the year that he chose to take the path of least resistance, rather than defend and protect the girl he once loved.

“And your dad?” he prompts. “Is he going to be okay?”

“I think so, yeah,” she responds, forcing a cheery smile on her face. “He might have to stay in the hospital for a few days – keep tabs on his injuries and stuff, but the doctors said they think he’ll make a full recovery.”

She doesn’t share the fears she had tucked away within her mind, the unlikely outcomes that the doctors had shared to prepare her for whatever might happen. The need for bed rest and skin grafting was clear, and the risks of serious infection, brain damage, and worse were doubtful. But they were still possible.

“Good, I’m happy to hear it,” he replies, and she feels the silence that follows his statement surround her. It feels awkward, uncomfortable, _suffocating_.

“What’s up with your dad? Did you bail him out yet?” It feels wrong to be making criminal references to the renowned Jake Kane. The man is like royalty in Neptune, so the thought of him in jail is hard for Veronica to believe.

“I tried to, but Lamb refused. Said bail won’t be set until the courts open Monday morning. So I’ve got a weekend without parental supervision.” He tries to toss her the standard mischievous teenager grin, but she doesn’t buy it.

“The house seems so cold, so empty without them there. It was startling enough after Lilly – ” His voice breaks, and he clears his throat before continuing. “The difference was obvious then, but everything just seems so lifeless and fake now. It’s good that her actual killer is finally in jail, but dealing with all of this almost makes it seem like she’s dying all over again.”

She doesn’t know what to say to that. Should she apologize for discovering and revealing his parents’ illegal wrongdoings? Should she let the silence continue to swirl between them?

She settles for a simple apology, unsure as to what she’s apologizing for. She moves forward to envelop him in a supportive hug, and he clings to her as if she’s his only remaining link with reality.

A few minutes pass that way – Duncan clutching her so close she can hardly move, as she attempts to soothe him with reassuring platitudes. Once he manages to pull himself together, he releases her, a soft flush on his face.

“Thanks, I just ... ” He trails off, unable to find the words.

She knows how he feels – alone, abandoned, isolated. The same feelings that dominated her own emotions after Lilly’s death. The same feelings that he did little to help assuage. The same feelings that Meg – his _girlfriend_ – should be helping him face.

Except the blunt truth that she sees in his eyes at that moment. His relationship with Meg was nothing more than a replacement for his lost relationship with her, the girl he had dated, loved, and adored until his mother’s lies sent him into a blind panic.

“Veronica, could we – ”

“Duncan, no,” she interrupts quickly, not wanting to have this conversation with him now, if ever. She has too many questions about too many things to be able to give him an honest answer to the question she sees shining in his blue-gray orbs. “I can’t talk about this right now, okay? There’s just too much going on, and I can hardly think clearly as it is.”

“Okay,” he accedes. “I’ll see you later. And, Veronica? Thanks.”

She smiles her relief at his easy acceptance of her request, as she softly closes the apartment door behind her. She knows that Duncan deserves an honest answer from her given both their history and all that she’s been through recently. However, given the emotional rollercoaster that their relationship has been recently, she hardly knows which end is up – let alone how she feels about him.

“Loverboy isn’t staying?”

The sounds of the familiar voice startle her, causing her to back up against the door.

“You startled me. How’d you get in here?”

“You were so wrapped up in comforting your poor ol’ boyfriend that I could have walked off with the television set and you wouldn’t have noticed. But eighteen-inch Orion sets aren’t my thing.”

“What are you doing here?” she asks, as she moves slowly towards him.

“Have you forgotten already that a certain Latino henchman of yours was sent to fetch me off the Coronado Bridge?” He clucks his tongue mockingly, as he reaches for his flask. “So whaddya want, Ronnie?”

“What were you doing on the bridge?” she questions, feeling her heartbeat start to race. She knows that he was in a hell of a mood when he left her on the beach, but he wouldn’t have –

“Well, I figured that there’s just not enough shit in Neptune named after the Echolls family. If two of us would have leapt to our eternal swim from there, perhaps someone would spearhead a renaming task force. The Echolls Bridge at Suicidal Point – has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”

“Don’t even *joke* about that,” she warns, thankful that Weevil had been able to get to him in time. When she’d called him, she had been afraid of Logan doing something he’d regret when he heard about his father and Lilly on the news. She hadn’t thought to worry about what he would do, while he still thought that she believed his guilt.

And she hadn’t – well, not really. She hadn’t wanted to, that is, but everything had just looked so damning. The lies, the cover-up, the evidence …

She’d told her dad about everything initially, hoping that he would quickly figure out that it just wasn’t possible for Logan to have done that. After all, she knew that Logan, her _boyfriend_ wouldn’t have been able to hurt someone he loved – and she knew that he’d loved Lilly.

But with every new fact that they discovered, the path connecting Logan to Lilly’s murder just seemed more and more clear.

Not that she knows how to explain that to him. And it’s not like he would believe her, even if she did.

“So?” he begins, taking a swig from his flask. “I know you didn’t summon me to your place to talk about my self-destructive behaviors. Did you find more evidence against me? Is Lamb hiding in one of the bedrooms to drag me off to the pen?”

“Logan, I know you didn’t kill Lilly. But I know who did.”

The flask falls from his grip, spilling drops of brandy on his shirt and jacket. She has his complete attention. If only she knew how to word the revelation she was about to make.

How do you tell someone that his father killed his girlfriend, after he slept with her?

“I’m figuring it’s not Duncan, unless hanging out with suspected murderers is a new hobby of yours,” he snarks, after he tires of waiting for her to elaborate. “Or is what you share just too fucking _important_ to turn him into the police?”

_Just like a band-aid, Veronica. Pull it off all at once and get it over with._

“It was Aaron.” She purposely avoids referring to him as his father, knowing that verbalizing the familial connection won’t make things any easier.

The sardonic smirk falls from his features, as his face contorts into a look of absolute shock.

“Why?” he asks softly, and she’s almost surprised that he accepts her conclusion so easily. Then she remembers that Logan has experienced Aaron’s violent tendencies first-hand.

“He was seeing Lilly. I found – ” She pauses to clear her throat, waiting for Logan to explode. “Lilly had tapes of them together hidden in her vents. She was going to take them to the media.”

“And my father will do anything to avoid bad publicity,” Logan whispers hollowly.

“I’m sorry, Logan,” she says, as she perches on the armrest of his chair.

“You have nothing to apologize for,” he responds bitterly. “You didn’t fuck and then kill my girlfriend.”

“I know, but I’m sorry for accusing you. I should have known that you would never be able to do anything like that.”

“Why not? Like father, like son, right?”

“It’s not that simple,” she dissents. “I know you’d never hurt me, Logan.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” he asks, as she looks away. He’s been through so much already tonight – telling him about how close his father almost came to killing a second one of Logan’s ex-girlfriends wouldn’t make things any better.

When she avoids looking him in the eye, he studies her face closer and feels his stomach turn as he sees the blooming bruise on her left cheek.

“What happened to you?” he questions softly, as he gently fingers the wound.

When she doesn’t reply, he repeats his question insistently. “Veronica, what did my father do to you?”

She tells him the story of that night – of how his father threatened her and almost made her into a flambé. She told him about how her dad came to her rescue, and how scared she was, and how much she just wanted to tell him that she was sorry for not believing in him.

“I told you that I trusted you, and I wanted to trust you. I did. I just – I have a lot of issues that I need to work though. I’m really sorry.”

“It’s okay,” he responds, as he pulls her into a gentle embrace.

She knows that his words aren’t true. Or, rather, she knows that they’re not okay – that they might never be okay again.

“You should get some sleep,” he says after a moment, as he tucks a stand of hair behind her ear. “We can talk later.”

He lays a soft kiss on her forehead, before heading out the door.  
 **TBC**

**Author's Note:**

> I'm afraid that this WIP is going to be classified as "abandoned" since I have no idea what the plans were anymore. Still, for the sake of completeness, here it is.


End file.
